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hyporational comments on Good movies for rationalists? - Less Wrong
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I don't think movies are good for much else than entertainment, and there's nothing wrong with that. Some are good for inspiring certain attitudes and motivations, but the effect isn't specific for rationality and tends to fade rather quickly. ETA: This has potential to be really bad for rationality, as Trevor correctly suspects.
I think any argument for a movie being better for teaching rationality than actually studying for the two hours is rationalization.
Gattaca inspires me to be the determinator for a while.
You raise an important question that applies to fiction in general.
But consider that EY's inspiration for AI came from science fiction novels. I was greatly inspired by HPMOR and I wonder if studying science for the equivalent amount of time would have been better. Truth is that even what you study in books fades away, either because you forget much of it or because the excitement also wears off after a while. You could argue that fiction has an advantage because it is much easier to remember stories/characters than raw science.
Could you make a very inspirational and educational movie for rationalists? Probably. Are such movies actually made? Probably not. Good movies are expensive to produce and need to make money. Rationalists are a tiny niche market. Literature doesn't have this problem to the same extent. Also the time constraints of movies don't really allow much room for development of ideas.
Moneyball, maybe? (I haven't seen it though)
I liked the book better (and I liked the book a lot!)
I tend to have a much easier time remembering, and generate more ideas during, information which is presented in a way I find entertaining.
Movies may not strike an ideal balance, but I think there's a lot to be said for absorbing information presented in an entertaining manner.
I would try to solve this by making non-fiction literature and studying techniques more entertaining.
Well, personally, I read nonfiction almost exclusively these days, but I can't do much to make the material more entertaining than the author made it.